


Watching Over You (Feeling It Too)

by neonkorok



Series: The Bright Hand Oneshots [1]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Original Work
Genre: Angst, Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Introspection, Kidnapping, Original Character(s), after learning that your siblings are being held captive by an evil king in a foreign land, because it's a d&d campaign, but hey, but like only mentioned in one line because this fic isn't about that ahshhsj, but only one of them is mine, enjoy, even though she doesn't really want to think about it, it's late at night and kym is sad, so she's thinking about stuff, that's what happens when you have to teach a nine year old what death is, what can you do
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:47:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23817133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neonkorok/pseuds/neonkorok
Summary: After a long day with lots of hard news, Kym stays in Plu's room to make sure they're okay. While she does so, she thinks about her young companion's behavior and what it means about their past.She doesn't like what she figures out.~~Work title from Lullaby by Simi
Relationships: Kymopoleia "Kym" Ybdis & Anemone Gardenia, Kymopoleia "Kym" Ybdis & Plu
Series: The Bright Hand Oneshots [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1716025
Comments: 4
Kudos: 4





	Watching Over You (Feeling It Too)

**Author's Note:**

> Ignore me just throwing some D&D content into the void. I had Feels after our last session and I couldn't help myself.

For all that the world is a dark and horrible place, Kym can't help but think that it looks so peaceful as it sleeps. Looking out over the balcony of Plu’s room (so large for a child so painfully small), the unfamiliar sprawl of the city should bring her nothing but sorrow and worry, but instead it brings a sense of calmness and peace. It's a feeling that reminds her of her first home, now so impossibly far away.

She sighs, the sound lost beneath the constant rustling of the leaves. She knows she shouldn't miss that place, hidden away deep beneath the surface of the ocean somewhere none but the Zora could ever hope to reach. It was her home for only twenty years and never meant to be a permanent one. Her new residency, hidden behind high wooden walls in the swamp, should be the first place she thinks of when she thinks of home. But it's not. She knows what her parents say, what her aunts and uncles profess, what Tethus preaches, but she just can't make herself forget how much that secluded sanctuary meant to her. How heartbroken she was to have to leave it behind.

(She wonders for a second if it would still be there, if she found her way back to her dimension and time, sitting at the bottom of the ocean in all its ramshackle glory. Then she realizes that this is exactly why she's not supposed to think of it as her home anymore. She's attached, clinging desperately, to something that is no longer hers to attach to.

Her parents would be disappointed.)

She forces herself to turn around, leaving all thoughts of home behind her. She can't afford to miss the way things used to be right now. There are more important things for her to worry about.

Plu is still lying in bed when Kym walks in from the balcony, their head barely visible underneath the layers of cloth the others draped over them. She sits down on the side of the bed, just looking down at them. They must be too warm under all those layers, she thinks, but she has no real way to tell. As a Zora, temperature is mostly inconsequential to her so long as she isn't burning up or freezing over, but she has heard that Sheikah and other like races need to retain a more constant heat level. Plu wasn't wearing this many layers earlier, and Anemone had taken off her jacket to give it to Plu, so Plu’s body temperature must have increased while Anemone’s decreased. Does that mean Anemone is cold now? Should Kym give her the blankets from her own room? No, she would have to leave Plu’s room to do that. But then what could she do?

Plu makes a small noise in their sleep, bringing Kym’s thoughts to a grinding halt. They squirm around in the bed for a few moments, causing one of the layers to slip off of their body. Kym smiles down at them. Even in sleep, Plu can take care of themself. She really needn’t have worried.

Her smile turns mournful. Plu is only nine years old. They shouldn't need to be so adept at caring for themself. Their parents should be the ones looking out for them, keeping them safe from harm and protecting them from danger. They should be at home, not out in an unfamiliar world on an adventure with four strangers they've never met before and who they know next to nothing about. It's not _right._

Kym’s hand drifts up unconsciously to fiddle with her necklace.

Even if they didn't have their parents, they should at least have _someone_ to look after them. And while Anemone seems to be filling that role rather well, it's disheartening to see how Plu reacts to her presence as though it's something they've never experienced before. Kym has seen their incredulous looks sometimes when Anemone takes the time to explain concepts to them or goes out of her way to do something for them (or stop them from doing something). It's almost as if they've never had someone to look out for them, to mother them like Anemone does, or at the very least it's been a long time since they have. It's…sad.

Kym is suddenly reminded of a young boar she once found while on a hunt. It had looked so scared and alone when she approached it, looking up at her with big eyes like it was trying to decide whether to run away or charge her. It's the very same look Plu had when they'd first met. The wild, frantic look of prey that can't tell the difference between fellow prey and a predator. Of course, that boar hadn't had the time to decide, as her brother had put an arrow in its head just moments after Kym spotted it.

(Her next breath comes a little too shallow as she thinks of her brother, _captured_ along with her sisters, possibly injured or even _dead_ by now, and she hurries to move on.)

She remembers how she'd asked Plu to look over the map with her at the Three Barrels Inn and thinks that maybe she had been the arrow for Plu. Not that she wanted to harm or endanger them—quite the opposite, in fact. But she had taken that step to reach out and introduce herself, offering access to valuable information on the foreign land in which they found themselves. Maybe she hadn't convinced Plu that she was safe, but she had at least proven that she was useful, and even prey recognizes the value in a bigger and stronger hand to guide them sometimes.

Or maybe Kym simply thinks too much of herself. Maybe Plu had only tagged along because they had nowhere else to be and it seemed like the most obvious thing to do was stay with the group. Maybe they would have stayed with the group even if Kym hadn't been there to get them to sit down and talk for a bit. Who's to say?

She almost wishes she could say for sure whether she was the reason Plu stayed. That way, she would know for sure who to blame for their current situation.

If Plu hadn't come along with them, they never would have had to hear those harsh truths in the throne room. They never would have heard about their friend, dead and then suddenly not (the very thought sends shivers down even Kym’s spine—nobody should mess with the cycle of life and death). They never would have had to learn in such a harsh and heartbreaking way about the very concept of death and the end of all things. Sure, they would still be naïve and ignorant, but at least there would be a chance of there being a better way for them to find these things out.

(Or maybe there is no better way. Kym can't quite remember how she learned about death, but when she thinks about it, she can recall feeling a vague sentiment of fear and sadness before the emotions were buried under pretty words about cycles and laws of nature.

She quickly shuts down those thoughts.)

She looks back over at the mountain of cloth on the other side of the bed and sees that one more layer has fallen to the side, revealing what little of Plu’s face isn't still covered by their mask. They look almost peaceful despite the tears staining their cheeks under their still-swollen eyes. It makes them look impossibly younger. It's almost enough to make Kym forget what they've just been through.

Maybe she has this all wrong. Maybe this is exactly where Plu is supposed to be. It doesn't seem likely, not with all that’s happened in just the past week they've been traveling, but still. There's a possibility. (Tethus always likes to say that things all happen for a reason. Seeing as he's been around since the formation of Hyrule, Kym assumes there must be at least some truth to that. It's not nearly as comforting as she thinks it should be.)

She sighs once more, reaching out to tuck some of Plu’s hair behind their ear.

Well, even if bringing Plu along was a mistake, it's not like she can back out now. She made a promise to Plu that she would be there for them for as long as she could be. That she would help and protect them to the best of her ability. She has no intentions of going back on that promise, of abandoning this poor, sweet child who doesn't even know what a mother is. So what if Plu isn't a part of her actual family? So what if every step she takes in this world feels like treason to those who truly are? She made a _promise_. Her family would understand. Of course they would. She's just doing what needs to be done. That's all she ever does.

She keeps telling herself that as her eyes slowly drift shut and she leans back further against the headboard, and in the moments before she drifts fully into unconsciousness, she wonders why she can't quite make herself believe it.

**Author's Note:**

> My babies need so much love and support and the world keeps ripping it away from them. They deserve so much more :(


End file.
